Saturday, February 3, 2018

The damage done: the Nunes Memo

Exploration of bias is can be the cheapest shot and the most important investigative tool.  Our biases are our passions - the force which drives us to excel and to slaughter, to truth and to denial.  The Nunes memo identifies some bias: that FBI agent Peter Strzok loathed Donald Trump.  But such biases usually yield to honest investigators search for truth. 

The Nunes memo is of the cheap shot variety.  He insinuates bias from thin evidence and encourages inferences - of malevolence - utterly unsupported by the evidence.  Before an honest tribunal such an attack would matter little. 

But the electorate is not an honest tribunal: it is a force deeply divided in their passions.  And the side to whom Devin Nunes and Donald Trump appeal are those with an already jaundiced view of government.  Honed by years of talk radio, Fox News and the bitter commentary seen on the web, a large part of the electorate is primed to detest government and the party of government - the Democrats.  That group is ready to leap quickly from finding a Democrat in the FBI to joining the chorus crying "witch hunt".

The damage done by the insubstantial Nunes memo therefore is likely to be great. - gwc
Click link for Josh Marshall's first thought and the full text of the memo.
First Take: The ‘Nunes Memo’ Is Even Weaker Than Expected – Talking Points Memo

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